By Wu Fan, China

In June 2022, I learned that more than thirty brothers and sisters had been arrested by the police, including several leaders. Many brothers and sisters and the homes where gatherings took place had encountered safety risks, and the books of God’s words urgently needed to be moved. The leaders arranged for me and two sisters to go to the Chenguang Church to handle the aftermath. I thought to myself, “I have a criminal record from previous arrests, and the Communist Party has been pursuing me constantly over the years. If I go to handle the aftermath, it’s inevitable that I’ll have to go out in public, and I’ll have to come into contact with people who have safety risks. If I’m arrested again, the Communist Party would definitely not go easy on me. Even if they don’t kill me, they’d likely give me an eight-to-ten-year sentence. With God’s work nearing its end, what if the police were to kill or seriously injure me? Wouldn’t all my years of forsaking my family and career, and all my expenditure, be for nothing? How would I be saved and enter the kingdom of heaven?” But as I thought this, I felt a bit guilty, thinking, “I’m still thinking about myself at a time like this. I’m being so selfish.” I recalled some of God’s words: “The work of God is done for the sake of mankind, and the cooperation of man is given for the sake of God’s management. After God has done all that He is supposed to do, man is required to be unstinting in his practice, and to cooperate with God. In the work of God, man should spare no effort, should offer up his loyalty, and should not indulge in numerous notions, or sit passively and await death. God can sacrifice Himself for man, so why can man not offer his loyalty to God? God is of one heart and mind toward man, so why can man not offer a little cooperation? God works for mankind, so why can man not perform some of his duty for the sake of God’s management? God’s work has come this far, yet still you see but do not act, you hear but do not move. Are not such people the objects of perdition? God has already devoted His all to man, so why, today, is man incapable of earnestly performing his duty? For God, His work is His first priority, and the work of His management is of the utmost importance. For man, putting God’s words into practice and fulfilling God’s requirements are his first priority. This you should all understand” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Work and Man’s Practice). Contemplating God’s words, I felt a deep sense of guilt in my conscience. The Communist Party was frantically persecuting the church, brothers and sisters were in danger and urgently needed to be told to hide, the books of God’s words also needed to be moved, and there was also so much church work that needed to be handled urgently. At a time like this, it was necessary for someone to step up and handle the aftermath quickly and minimize the losses. This was in accordance with God’s intention. But I was only considering my own safety, not considering the church’s work at all, and not being considerate of God’s intention. I truly lacked conscience, and I was being so selfish and despicable! So I accepted this duty, and discussed the specific details of how to handle the aftermath with two sisters.

One night, a sister said that something had been installed on her electric scooter, so we quickly checked, and found that both our scooters had been fitted with trackers, which meant we might have already been targeted by the police and that we could be arrested at any moment. I felt anxious and uneasy, and images of the tortures that followed a previous arrest flashed before my eyes. When I’d been arrested before, the police had tortured me to force me to betray church finances and brothers and sisters, using a form of harsh, extended sleep deprivation where they made me stay awake all day, beating or scaring me whenever I started to fall asleep. They did this for twenty days on end. They tortured me to the point where living was worse than death, and if it weren’t for God’s care and protection, I would have died long ago. The memory of this still haunts me. I also thought about how, by this point, I was already over sixty years old and in poor health, with heart disease and high blood pressure, and I wondered, “If I were to be arrested again, could I withstand the torture and savage beatings?” The Communist Party tortures believers by any means possible, beating them to death without facing any repercussions. If I were beaten to death or incapacitated, how would I be able to believe in God or do my duties? I thought, “Forget it, I’ll just stop doing my duties for now and find a place to hide. It’s safer that way.” I also complained to myself that the leaders didn’t arrange this duty for someone else. After all, how could they let someone whose safety was at risk like me handle the aftermath? The more I thought like this, the more my heart sank. Later, I realized that my state was wrong, so I prayed to God, “God, my faith is too small. When I discovered the trackers on the scooters, I wallowed in fear and wanted to hide like a turtle pulling its head into its shell. I am truly selfish. God, I am willing to rely on You, look to You, and experience this situation with faith, and I hope You will guide me to reflect and recognize my issues.” After praying, I read a passage of God’s words: “Until people have experienced God’s work and understood the truth, it is Satan’s nature that takes charge and dominates them from within. What, specifically, does that nature entail? For example, why are you selfish? Why do you protect your own position? Why do you have such strong feelings? Why do you enjoy those unrighteous things? Why do you like those evils? What is the basis for your fondness for such things? Where do these things come from? Why are you so happy to accept them? By now, you have all come to understand that the main reason behind all these things is that Satan’s poison is within man. So what is Satan’s poison? How can it be expressed? For example, if you ask, ‘How should people live? What should people live for?’ people will answer, ‘Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This single phrase expresses the very root of the problem. Satan’s philosophy and logic have become people’s lives. No matter what people pursue, they do so for themselves—and so they live only for themselves. ‘Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost’—this is the life philosophy of man, and it also represents human nature. These words have already become the nature of corrupt mankind and they are the true portrait of corrupt mankind’s satanic nature. This satanic nature has already become the basis for corrupt mankind’s existence. For several thousand years, corrupt mankind has lived by this venom of Satan, right up to the present day” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. How to Walk the Path of Peter). From the exposure of God’s words, I realized that whenever I encountered a dangerous situation, I always thought about myself, and at the root of this were satanic poisons like “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” and “Never lift a finger without a reward,” as these ideas had come to influence me deeply. These sayings had become the standard by which I acted and conducted myself. Living by these thoughts and viewpoints, I became selfish and self-interested, taking the gain of profit and avoidance of loss as my principles. When I used to work in society, this was how I conducted myself, even choosing my friends based on who could be of use to me. After finding God and starting my duties, I was still only considering myself, preferring to do easy tasks that were well-regarded by leaders. When the situation was comfortable, I could endure suffering and expend myself in doing my duties, but when the situation turned dire and involved personal safety, I only thought of my own interests and didn’t care about the church’s work at all. When the leaders arranged for me to handle the aftermath, my first concern was for my own safety, and especially when I discovered that trackers had been installed on our scooters, I became even more worried about being monitored by the police, and about the risk that I could be arrested or even lose my life at any moment. I even thought about abandoning my duties and going into hiding to prioritize my own survival. I was just thinking about myself, disregarding the church’s work or whether brothers and sisters would be arrested. I was so selfish and despicable! Handling aftermath work requires working against the clock, and at such a crucial time like this, anyone with conscience and reason would stand up to protect the interests of God’s house and do their utmost to minimize losses. Even if it meant being arrested, imprisoned, or losing their life, they would choose to protect the church’s work to comfort God’s heart. But as for me, when faced with danger, I wanted to run and hide like a turtle pulling its head into its shell. In what way did I have any humanity? Realizing this, I felt deeply ashamed and regretful, and I loathed myself. I didn’t want to run from this situation any longer, and I was willing to submit and handle the aftermath work properly.

Later, I read another passage of God’s words: “Regardless of how ‘powerful’ Satan is, regardless of how audacious and ambitious it is, regardless of how great is its ability to inflict damage, regardless of how wide-ranging are the techniques with which it corrupts and lures man, regardless of how clever are the tricks and schemes with which it intimidates man, regardless of how changeable is the form in which it exists, it has never been able to create a single living thing, has never been able to set down laws or rules for the existence of all things, and has never been able to rule and control any object, whether animate or inanimate. Within the cosmos and the firmament, there is not a single person or object that was born from it, or exists because of it; there is not a single person or object that is ruled by it, or controlled by it. On the contrary, it not only has to live under the dominion of God, but, moreover, must submit to all of God’s orders and commands. Without God’s permission, it is difficult for Satan to touch even a drop of water or grain of sand upon the land; without God’s permission, Satan is not even free to move the ants about upon the land, let alone mankind, who was created by God. In the eyes of God, Satan is inferior to the lilies on the mountain, to the birds flying in the air, to the fish in the sea, and to the maggots on the earth. Its role among all things is to serve all things, to serve mankind, and to serve God’s work and His plan of management” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique I). God’s words truly have authority and power. After reading God’s words, I felt full of faith, realizing that no matter how rampant the Communist Party is, it is still in God’s hands. It is just a tool of service that God uses to perfect His chosen people. Everything it does is within the scope of God’s permission, and if God doesn’t permit it, it can’t harm anyone. Even if I were to come face to face with the police, I wouldn’t be caught. I recalled a few years ago when many leaders and workers in our area were arrested, and we were still attending gatherings, unaware. Suddenly, more than ten police officers came and knocked on the door. They kept knocking for several minutes, and we just kept praying and didn’t open the door. Half an hour later, the police thought no one was home and placed two officers on guard, while the others left. Later, we looked from the window, and when the police weren’t paying attention, we took the chance to escape. Another time, after we had finished a gathering, and a brother and I had just left, two sisters were trapped by the police in the room. The sisters hurriedly grabbed the computers and hid under the bed, but even though they were right in front of the police, they weren’t discovered. From these facts, I saw God’s almightiness, and I knew that everything is in God’s hands. Even though my scooter had had a tracker installed, whether or not I’d be caught wasn’t up to the police; it was up to God. If God allowed me to be arrested by the police, no matter where I hid, I wouldn’t escape. I had to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements. Realizing this, my heart became settled and calm, and I was no longer so timid or afraid. We then continued with the aftermath work, safely transferring all the books of God’s words and relocating the brothers and sisters to safe places to do their duties.

After arranging the work of this church, I went to another church to handle the aftermath work there. I found two supervisors to discuss how to quickly restore the church’s work to normal. But to my surprise, one of the supervisors’ scooters had also been fitted with a tracker, and the police had even visited our residence to investigate. A tense atmosphere hung over us again and I felt really repressed. The Communist Party is like a ghost, relentlessly arresting and persecuting the believers, disturbing and destroying the church’s work. It is truly cursed and condemnable! The next day, I received a letter from the upper leadership, arranging for me and a sister to handle a letter of report. The letter reported that there was an antichrist in power in the church, oppressing and tormenting people, and causing chaos in the church. They said the matter was urgent and asked me to handle it immediately. I didn’t want to go and complained about the person who wrote the letter, thinking, “The situation is already dire enough here, and you picked now of all times to write a letter of report. We’re already busy enough with the aftermath work, and now you’re just adding to the chaos!” At that very moment, I learned that two people who had been arrested had become Judases, and that they both knew me. The police had even questioned them about me and I didn’t know how much information they had revealed to the police about me. I thought, “The police are already hunting me; if I go out in public again, won’t I just be walking into the line of fire? If I get caught, the police won’t let me off easily. Even if they didn’t beat me to death, they’d surely leave me crippled.” I felt so conflicted, “Handling the letter of report relates to the church’s work, and if these antichrists and evil people aren’t dealt with promptly, it’ll cause more chaos, and brothers and sisters will continue to be oppressed and tormented. But this letter of report involves several churches and requires on-site investigation and verification, and if I go out in public to do that, I’d be at risk of being arrested sooner or later!” With this in mind, I felt very nervous and just couldn’t calm down. So I prayed to God, asking Him to give me faith and strength. After praying, I remembered God’s words mentioning how the disciples of the Lord Jesus were martyred for Him. I quickly found these words to read.

Almighty God says: “How did those disciples of the Lord Jesus die? Among the disciples, there were those who were stoned, dragged behind a horse, crucified upside down, dismembered by five horses—every sort of death befell them. What was the reason for their deaths? Were they lawfully executed for their crimes? No. They were condemned, beaten, scolded, and put to death because they spread the Lord’s gospel and were rejected by the people of the world—that is how they were martyred. … Actually, this was how their bodies died and passed away; this was their means of departure from the human world, yet that did not mean their outcome was the same. No matter what the means of their death and departure was nor how it happened, it was not how God defined the final outcomes of those lives, of those created beings. This is something you must see clearly. On the contrary, they used precisely those means to condemn this world and to testify to God’s deeds. These created beings used their most precious lives—they used the last moment of their lives to testify to God’s deeds, to testify to God’s great power, and to declare to Satan and the world that God’s deeds are right, that the Lord Jesus is God, that He is the Lord, and God’s incarnate flesh. Even down to the final moment of their lives, they never denied the name of the Lord Jesus. Was this not a form of judgment upon this world? They used their lives to proclaim to the world, to confirm to human beings that the Lord Jesus is the Lord, that the Lord Jesus is Christ, that He is God’s incarnate flesh, that the work of redemption He did for all humanity allows humanity to live on—this fact is forever unchanging. Those who were martyred for spreading the gospel of the Lord Jesus, to what extent did they perform their duty? Was it to the ultimate extent? How was the ultimate extent manifested? (They offered their lives.) That’s right, they paid the price with their lives” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Spreading the Gospel Is the Duty to Which All Believers Are Honor-Bound). “When those who are loyal to God know clearly that an environment is dangerous, they still brave the risk of doing the work of handling the aftermath, and they keep the losses to God’s house to a minimum before they themselves withdraw. They do not give priority to their own safety. Tell Me, in this wicked country of the great red dragon, who could ensure that there is no danger at all in believing in God and doing a duty? Whatever duty one takes on, it entails some risk—yet the performance of duty is commissioned by God, and while following God, one must take on the risk of doing their duty. One should exercise wisdom, and one has need of taking measures to ensure their safety, but one should not put their personal safety first. They should consider God’s intentions, putting the work of His house first and putting the spread of the gospel first. Completing God’s commission of them is what matters most, and it comes first. Antichrists give top priority to their personal safety; they believe that nothing else has anything to do with them. They do not care when something happens to someone else, regardless of who it might be. As long as nothing bad happens to the antichrists themselves, they feel at ease. They are devoid of any loyalty, which is determined by the antichrists’ nature essence” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Two)). During the Age of Grace, the disciples of the Lord Jesus testified to Him and spread the gospel, and for this, they were willing to sacrifice their lives. For example, Peter was crucified upside down for God, remaining loyal unto death, Stephen was stoned to death for propagating the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and so on. They paid with their lives to propagate God’s word and bear witness to His work to the world. Although they were persecuted and died in the flesh, their deaths were valuable and meaningful, and they met with God’s approval. I thought of how, in the last days, many true believers who followed God had been arrested and had endured cruel torture for propagating and bearing witness to Almighty God’s gospel of the last days. Some had been beaten to death, and some had been crippled, but they would rather spend their lives in prison than deny God or betray Him. They would rather die than become Judases. Ultimately, they bore testimony that triumphed over Satan. Now, the church urgently needed someone to handle its work, but I was always prioritizing my own safety and placing my life above all else. I was neither loyal nor submissive to God, let alone able to bear any testimony for Him. What meaning was there in dragging out my ignoble existence like this, without doing my duties? I also realized that my understanding was distorted, as I always worried that if I were beaten to death or crippled, I would lose my chance to be saved, but in reality, being saved refers to experiencing God’s work to the point where a person can cast off their corrupt disposition and achieve true submission to God. If I couldn’t submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and if I didn’t pursue the truth and do my duties well, nor cast off my corrupt disposition in the situation God had arranged, but instead chose to run and hide like a turtle pulling its head into its shell, then I would truly lose my chance to be saved. Realizing this, I resolved to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and that no matter what situation I might face in the future, I would start by fulfilling my duties and responsibilities properly. If I did get arrested one day, that too would be permitted by God, and I would follow the example of the Lord Jesus’ disciples, and be loyal to God unto death. So, I disguised myself, and while handling the aftermath, I also worked to verify the letter of report. Later, after verification, I found that most of the content in the letter of report wasn’t consistent with facts, and that a small part of it was slander and false accusation. I also learned that the person who wrote the letter of report often relentlessly fixated on people and things, stirred up trouble, and sowed discord, that she retaliated against anyone who corrected her, and that her humanity was malicious. In the end, with the agreement of most church members, she was expelled from the church.

Through this experience of handling the aftermath, I gained some understanding of my selfish nature, and I also saw that God’s work is incredibly wise. God uses the CCP’s arrests and persecution to render service for perfecting His chosen people, and also to reveal various kinds of people. For example, many church leaders and workers and brothers and sisters were arrested this time, and some, in order to protect themselves in this adverse situation, became too scared to do their duties, while others, after being arrested, became Judases to save their lives, selling out their brothers and sisters, and even signing the “Three Statements” to deny and betray God. But there were some people who, after being arrested, and going through the brainwashing, coercion, enticement, and torture of the great red dragon, still didn’t lose faith in God. They preferred to serve their prison sentences and be convicted rather than become Judases, vowing not to betray God even unto death. They bore beautiful and resounding testimony for God, and although they suffered much in the flesh, their testimonies met with God’s approval and were remembered by Him. In this way, God classified each person according to their kind. Although the great red dragon was still arresting and persecuting us, the church’s work continued as usual, and the brothers and sisters who were at risk, along with the books of God’s word, had all been safely relocated, and evil people and disbelievers that caused disruption and disturbance had been cleared out of the church. This situation allowed me to witness God’s wondrous deeds, and that all of God’s work is done by God Himself. My faith in God has grown. Thanks be to God!